KRAFTON, Inc. (CEO CH Kim) announced its 3Q23 preliminary earnings on November 7. KRAFTON recorded its 3Q23 sales at KRW450.3B, OP at KRW189.3B and NP at KRW211.6B in accordance with the Korean International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS). Sales and OP both climbed 16% QoQ and 44% QoQ, respectively, which would translate into 4% YoY and 31% YoY, respectively. KRAFTON posted its 3Q23 cumulative sales at KRW1,376B and OP at KRW603.7B, claiming the highest OPM among the listed game companies in Korea.
The achievement in sales and OP is largely attributed to the stable revenue generated across all platforms by PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS IP. On PC/Console, PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS updated its classic maps Miramar and Erangel and introduced new weapon Dragunov, offering new gameplay experiences to users in 3Q23. As the company has engaged in direct communication with users and actively gathered their feedback through the PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Director Live Talk since August, it achieved sales of KRW133.3B on PC/Console.
As for Mobile, sales picked up 26% QoQ and 9% YoY to KRW309.1B driven by PUBG MOBILE’s Dragon Ball Super collaboration and the resumption of BATTLEGROUNDS MOBILE INDIA (BGMI) services. In India, hosting large-scale Esports competitions and providing localized content helped sales and traffic return to the previous levels while the game has further solidified its position as the most popular game in the Indian market with the steady inflow of new users.
With its strategic direction of “Scale-Up the Creative” since early-2023, KRAFTON has been enhancing its publishing capabilities and focusing on new IP acquisition, thereby gaining a foothold to take another leap forward. This year, up until the third quarter, KRAFTON has made equity investments in a total of 13 global studios, focusing on strengthening publishing capabilities and acquiring new IPs. As such, the number of global studios in which KRAFTON has invested since going public has increased to 21.
KRAFTON’s self-developed new titles are set to connect with fans, starting from 2024. Among these, ‘Dark and Darker Mobile,’ an extraction RPG independently developed by Bluehole Studio, and ‘inZOI,’ a life simulation game featuring realistic graphics, will be the first to meet the fans. Furthermore, the company is poised to bolster its earnings with a lineup of forthcoming releases, including an extraction shooter genre game, ‘Project Black Budget,’ currently being developed by PUBG STUDIOS and scheduled for launch in 2H24.
Dongkeun Bae, CFO of KRAFTON, stated, "KRAFTON is growing steadily based on the ongoing potential of the PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS IP," and added, "Moving forward, KRAFTON aims to become a company known for launching major new titles and highly anticipated games every year, by expanding our pipeline aggressively with our own game development and second-party publishing."
